Ubah & N11Bn Petrol: Lawyers disagree with DSS over mention of death penalty
Since the Department of State Services (DSS), mentioned that the discovery that Ifeanyi Ubah, chief executive officer, Capital Oil and Gas Limited, allegedly diverted about 80 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), kept in his custody by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), amounted to economic sabotage punishable by death, the assertion has begin to attract condemnation and debate from Nigerians and mainly human rights legal luminaries.
In a reply to an sms interview question sent to former chairman of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja Branch, Mr. Monday Onyekachi Ubani, he texted thus: “I think the question should be directed to DSS for I do not know myself”.
Business Hilights had sent an sms to the Human Rights crusader asking “Can you help us point to the particular law on which the DSS had relied upon to say that Ifeanyi Ubah’s diversion of 80 million litres of fuel is punishable to by death ?”, before getting the above in reply.
Another lawyer who pleaded anonymity averred that “Such clearly provocative and judgmental utterances from a respected security agency that is not a competent court of law at this trying times of the nation where a lot of issues are easily given ethnic and political interpretation amounts to danger signal”.
He said “Am yet to come across a section of the 1999 Constitution that says that alleged diversion of petrol or any other material in ones custody amounts to death penalty”.
DSS had argued that apart from the issue that Ubah shunned NNPC’s repeated demand for the product said to worth N11bn in order to cause an artificial scarcity of the product, it claimed further that the oil mogul’s action could plunge the country into widespread scarcity of PMS and economic chaos.
These were stated in a counter-affidavit and written submissions filed by the DSS in opposition to an application by Ubah, asking a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Jabi, Abuja to set aside an order for his detention for 14 days.
It would be recalled that Justice Yusuf Halilu had granted the order to the DSS on May 10, 2017 allowing the agency to keep the suspect in custody for 14 days pending the completion of an ongoing criminal investigation against him.
Business Hilights learnt that DSS’s lawyer, Mr. G. Agbadua, told Justice Halilu on Tuesday that Ubah was plotting to plunge the nation into economic and social crisis by creating artificial scarcity of petroleum product.
The DSS’ counter-affidavit deposed to by one of the agency’s operatives, Mr. Safwan Bello, stated, “The respondent (Ubah) was arrested on reasonable suspicion of his involvement in the commission of crime”.
“He converted PMS belonging to the NNPC kept in the custody of his tank farm to his personal use.
“The respondent refused to return the PMS to NNPC after repeated demands. The PMS is worth over N11bn. The action of the respondent is affecting the distribution of petroleum products to the populace.
“The action of the respondent is sabotage of NNPC’s activities as it relates to distribution of petroleum products. If not for the urgent steps taken by the Federal Government, the action of the respondent would have plunged the country into widespread scarcity with its attendant effect on the economy.”
